I agree with you, Drew, and it would be great to have more happening here. I think maybe the forum lost impetus during the time that it was having problems with the server and was not functioning for a while, then we all had to re-register (if I remember correctly) when Nigel got it fixed. A lot of stuff was lost then, I believe. The last person to register, according to the stats, was someone called davidfm.

If you look at the member numbers it shows only 35 registered members, and of those I would say that fewer than ten members are active posters. Nigel has such a very busy workload and teaching schedule that he must find it very hard to keep things going on the forum, and we need to remember that he makes his living from his teaching and workshops whereas the forum is a non-earner for him.

Interestingly, I am a regular poster over on the Mandolin Cafe and I am not aware of any of the regulars here as posters, but my main activity over there is the Song-A-Week group and even this has been having a fairly lean time recently, with very few offerings from the very much greater members who frequent the group. The various forum groups have a lot of activity going on, and I have noticed an increase in numbers recently from folk on our side of the Atlantic!

(01-03-2018, 01:19 PM)John Kelly Wrote: I agree with you, Drew, and it would be great to have more happening here. I think maybe the forum lost impetus during the time that it was having problems with the server and was not functioning for a while, then we all had to re-register (if I remember correctly) when Nigel got it fixed. A lot of stuff was lost then, I believe. The last person to register, according to the stats, was someone called davidfm.

If you look at the member numbers it shows only 35 registered members, and of those I would say that fewer than ten members are active posters. Nigel has such a very busy workload and teaching schedule that he must find it very hard to keep things going on the forum, and we need to remember that he makes his living from his teaching and workshops whereas the forum is a non-earner for him.

Interestingly, I am a regular poster over on the Mandolin Cafe and I am not aware of any of the regulars here as posters, but my main activity over there is the Song-A-Week group and even this has been having a fairly lean time recently, with very few offerings from the very much greater members who frequent the group. The various forum groups have a lot of activity going on, and I have noticed an increase in numbers recently from folk on our side of the Atlantic!

Let's see what transpires from your thread!

John

Hi John,
yes I saw your "SAW" group and have joined it mainly due to listening to your YouTube, that I really enjoy. Sometimes the SAW group refer to Nigel's tunes so it would be good to try and get his forum active.

Most people now seem to be on Facebook which I don't really use myself except for visiting a few music sites but I don't generally communicate with others there or accept friends.
For me, the concept is rather cliquish even although it's possible to have hundreds of so called "friends" whom you hardly know.
Twitter is slightly better but, again, you can choose your company and both of these social media options tend to end up just as an "echo chamber" with everyone agreeing with each other.

Of course, I don't want to be falling out with people or deliberately causing conflict or controversy (I've moved on from such things now ) but I also found the old fashioned forums stimulated more discussion and debate than FB groups etc.
Most of them, however, are now much quieter. Even the likes of the Session.org although it's still fairly active. Footstompin(Now HUFT) seems to have died a death and posts on Dick Gaughan's forum are also sporadic.

I doubt if we can ever get this forum back to the way it was either. Nigel himself hardly posts now either although I appreciate he is very busy and has gone though a difficult year or so(A bit like myself).
What I suggest is that those of us who are really interested could agree to post certain topics every so often... Maybe a tune a month or a recording/video link which we feel is quite significant. Also, if we've been to a good gig or concert, we could mention it to let everyone know. Or if there is one coming up....

There are other matters we could discuss too. However, I think it might be good if anyone who reads this responds and we can all agree to make a little more effort. Then, at least we know that our posts will actually be read and, hopefully, acknowledged in one way or another even if it's just by half a dozen of us.

(05-03-2018, 07:23 PM)JAJ Wrote: Sadly, I think these older style forums are now going out of fashion.

Most people now seem to be on Facebook which I don't really use myself except for visiting a few music sites but I don't generally communicate with others there or accept friends.
For me, the concept is rather cliquish even although it's possible to have hundreds of so called "friends" whom you hardly know.
Twitter is slightly better but, again, you can choose your company and both of these social media options tend to end up just as an "echo chamber" with everyone agreeing with each other.

Of course, I don't want to be falling out with people or deliberately causing conflict or controversy (I've moved on from such things now ) but I also found the old fashioned forums stimulated more discussion and debate than FB groups etc.
Most of them, however, are now much quieter. Even the likes of the Session.org although it's still fairly active. Footstompin(Now HUFT) seems to have died a death and posts on Dick Gaughan's forum are also sporadic.

I doubt if we can ever get this forum back to the way it was either. Nigel himself hardly posts now either although I appreciate he is very busy and has gone though a difficult year or so(A bit like myself).
What I suggest is that those of us who are really interested could agree to post certain topics every so often... Maybe a tune a month or a recording/video link which we feel is quite significant. Also, if we've been to a good gig or concert, we could mention it to let everyone know. Or if there is one coming up....

There are other matters we could discuss too. However, I think it might be good if anyone who reads this responds and we can all agree to make a little more effort. Then, at least we know that our posts will actually be read and, hopefully, acknowledged in one way or another even if it's just by half a dozen of us.

JAJ
I agree with every word you said, for me as a fairly newbe mandolin player I have learned so much from the posts here and of course from Nigel. I do have a lot of questions to ask and although there is the very good Mandolin Cafe and I subscribe to Mandolessons I find that your questions can get lost or taken away from topic in these bigger forums.

I don't do "facebook" never have and never would. I do post over on Mandolin Cafe and would probably post on here if the categories were the same as they were on the old forum; of which I was also a member.

All thanks to Nigel for getting things back up and running but the subjects I might feel able to contribute to no longer seem to crop up. There used to be a mandolin specific section, for example, but the forum, as currently set up, concentrates on types of music rather than types of instrument.

Edit - checking the member list, I was, in fact, the fourth person after Nigel to re-join the forum (John Kelly beat me to it) and this is my first post!

This will be post #7 of this thread, and makes it one of the most active threads for some time. Alistair's Aros Park thread reached post #9 recently, so Ray has a very valid point as has JAJ about the nature of the forum as it exists.

Re ideas such as a tune of the month/week/season the SAW group over on Mandolin Cafe (run by Barbara Shultz) recently had a discussion about the lack of response on it and there has been a wee bit more activity since, but even here, with 1431 members in the group, there is really not a great deal of activity except for a small hard core of regulars (including a handful of us from the UK). Nigel's Tune of the Month was a great feature, but took a lot of his time and for very little response from the members of the forum.

I'm sure there are loads of folk who browse but do not contribute in any other way, and maybe this is the nature of the beast now with so many other ways of communicating. I too am a non-user of FaceBook and Twitter so I do find the mandolin sites keep me in touch with like-minded folk. Barry's Mandolin.org.uk is another fine site but with very little activity on it.

(13-03-2018, 04:21 PM)John Kelly Wrote: This will be post #7 of this thread, and makes it one of the most active threads for some time. Alistair's Aros Park thread reached post #9 recently, so Ray has a very valid point as has JAJ about the nature of the forum as it exists.

Re ideas such as a tune of the month/week/season the SAW group over on Mandolin Cafe (run by Barbara Shultz) recently had a discussion about the lack of response on it and there has been a wee bit more activity since, but even here, with 1431 members in the group, there is really not a great deal of activity except for a small hard core of regulars (including a handful of us from the UK). Nigel's Tune of the Month was a great feature, but took a lot of his time and for very little response from the members of the forum.

I'm sure there are loads of folk who browse but do not contribute in any other way, and maybe this is the nature of the beast now with so many other ways of communicating. I too am a non-user of FaceBook and Twitter so I do find the mandolin sites keep me in touch with like-minded folk. Barry's Mandolin.org.uk is another fine site but with very little activity on it.

Let's see if we can keep this thread going into double figures!

Like John I would like to see this Forum more widely used especially as it is only one of a few UK based sites.

Ideas for threads? what about your favourite mandolin Tune, The song you like to play the best and a tune that you would like to play.

I have a lot of favourite tunes but my current is Hurlock's Reel, I would like to say St. Kilda Wedding (Ossian) but still not mastered that one yet.
My favourite tune to play is Tramps and Hawkers - Battlefield Band Version

I would love to play "My Young Man" by Kate Rusby and as I cannot get the music for it, I guess this is the one that taking John and JAJ advise and learn to play by ear (someday).